Karen Lukacs

About the Process

Karen Lukacs: designer/maker with a passion for textiles. I grew up in a time and a place where making things by hand was part of the cultural way of life. I was inspired by those who knit/ crocheted family heirlooms, stitched/manipulated yardage into fashion, and transformed remnants into home décor. At a very early age, I fell in love with the magical, transformative power in working with needles and threads. For the last 20+ years, my work has responded to the plethora of discarded textiles from the fashion industry: a cultural habit of over-production, over-consumption, resulting in thoughtless waste and discard. Fast fashion created a monster that seeming has no bounds. A forever sewist and weaver, honed skill sets and corresponding tools are used in my processes of garment disassembly and collaged reconstruction to bring cast-off textiles back to life. Resources are hand selected with an eye to their reinvention. My design focus reaches for technical challenges and contradictions with these materials: shaping knits into structured totes, enveloping hand-formed frames with silk neckties, reshaping garments into artisanal fashion, utilizing every viable scrap for home decor. The Denim Collection began as an exploration into denim jeans, an iconic fashion item renowned for self-expression and individuality. Traditional mending techniques, inventive surface design, and piecing techniques are combined to create new textiles. Original marks, scars and unique details are strategically incorporated into innovative and timeless designs. My process follows a zero-waste hierarchical design strategy that leaves "no scrap behind." The denim collection begins with one-of-a-kind jackets created from discarded denim jeans. Remnants are then collaged and transformed into bags. Those scraps are reinvented into innovative textiles for pillows and throws. I see my work - this transformation of the old, scarred, and unwanted - as modern heirlooms with new stories yet to unfold.